Regarding those of us who mostly do assisted living/nursing home gigs....

I have done gigs by myself and with my wife.

The activity directors I know would prefer to have my wife there as she gets out in the crowd. She will sing to residents, dance with them, give them shakers to keep time and generally interact with them.

For the AD's, the music/singing is secondary to interaction with the residents.

Unless the music/singing is bad or boring, I believe to many AD's, it's all the same.

However, interaction with residents is something AD's understand and is a big deal to them.

I have addressed this many times in the past, on this forum and others. Those of us that perform in front of an audience, either as a single, or member of a group, are, first and foremost, entertainers. That's what we are paid to do - ENTERTAIN! It makes no difference where we do this. It can be something as subtle as a small restaurant, assisted living center, nursing home, living room party, Carnage Hall of Dodger's Stadium. Those audiences are there to be entertained.

As for me persanally, I've never been a good musician, and consider myself a hack musician at best. My saving grace in the music industry has always been my vocal ability, plus my ability to communicate with my audiences.

A classic example of this was experienced by one of the best musicians I ever knew, Jerry Burns. Jerry, who passed away just a week ago, teamed up with his wife Elsa, also deceased, creating the Jerry And Elsa Burns Duo. Jerry, who was Peabody trained, once told me that without Elsa holding the mic, and spellbinding the audiences, the best he could hope for was a low-paying job in a piano bar, or as a band member with a big band, making $50 to $75 per performance. Jerry was also the keyboard/piano player for the Zim Zemarel Orchestra for three decades. His wife Elsa was their leading jazz singer. Jerry said "Elsa is an entertainer and the audiences love her. That's why we keep getting hired at the best locations."

Gary

Wow! Gary, I haven't heard that name in years. Jerry was in the 2nd Army Band back in 62-63. He was a monster organist. Was organist for the Orials for a while b4 getting drafted. I remember going to see him at some restaurant in Baltimore and when he recognized me he went into Satin Doll (tune I used for my theme song) at 180. He played full chord melody in right hand, left hand and on one chorus the melody on the pedals all well caring on a conversation with me. I had heard that he was selling organs in So PA. Have often wondered what happened to him. Sad to hear of his passing.

All these comments about jazz clubs, make me wonder how many wedding paties take place in a Jazzclub..

Personally, I never saw a wedding reception, or wedding, take place in a jazz club, but I rarely go to jazz clubs. Gotta keep in mind, though, that jazz music is a very, very small segment of the overall musical entertainment business. The last statistics I read was that jazz audiences ranged from 10 to 13 percent of the total ranging from age 29 to 59. I could be wrong with that statistic, but if I am, I'm sure Tony and Chas will chime in and correct me.

All the best,

Gary

?????

Tony, both you and Chas forgot more about Jazz than I ever knew about the subject.

Gary

Yeah, that about corresponds to that percentage of the population with good taste .

chas

Thanks, but I am not nearly in the same conversation with chas and Russ when it comes to Jazz ...

Gary, Have to tell you I may not know quite as much about jazz as Chas, Russ or Tony but going back to my 20s thru late 40s that’s about all the music I listened to. A good part of my social life was heading to jazz clubs in Boston, locally here in Providence and to a lesser degree NYC. I’ve probably been to more jazz venues than any other type musical performance. I’ve seen McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Michel Camilo, Stanley Turentine, Harry Allen, Greg Abate, Bill Easley, Flip Phillips, Groove Holmes, John PIzzarelli, Mose Allison, Gray Sargeant, Makoto Ozone, Rhode Island native Mike Renzi, Laszlo Gardonay, Alan Broadbent, Bill Charlap, Dave McKenna, Carole Sloane,Dianne Reeves and Jessica Molaskey ( wife of John PIzzarelli). Those are the top ones and there was some excellent locals too who never made it to the top.

My regret is I never got to see Oscar Peterson. About 18 months ago Joey DeFrancesco was playing in nearby Ct. I missed seeing him. Ironically I have never been to the Newport Jazz Festival which is held about a 45 minute ride from where I live because I prefer hearing jazz in a club not in a large field


When it comes to audience size it’s the same reason when I wrote we went to the Knickerbocker in Greenwich Village on a Thursday evening that they were only 6 people listening to pianist James Williams.